Catholic High Schools are not usually associated with radical experiments in education.

But there is a real revolution breaking out in the art department of Bishop Gibbons High School in Schenectady, N.Y., where Teacher Sue Silverstein is re-imagining what art is and how it can be taught to the young.

Many schools have abandoned their art programs due to budget cuts, what a mistake that is. Sue Silverstein can show them why.

People all over the country – readers of this blog –  are helping her do it by sending her a continuing, surprising, and valuable stream of art supplies, most of them used and abandoned objects forgotten or hidden away in cellars and garages, and attics.

Sue has touched a deep nerve: so far, people from 21 states have sent supplies and used and discarded objects to her, often in big boxes that amaze the office staff. Once in a while, the FedEx trucks are almost full.

It seems this is a way people donate with.

I’ve never seen anything quite like it. I’m not sure there is anything like it. This is an interactive program – the students get to choose their art form, not have it dictated to them without choice. They never seem bored, quite the opposite, making art fires them up.

Sue has created an art wheel that connects her,  my blog readers, her students, their parents, and all kinds of strangers with big hearts. This has become its own community, and the real winners are the kids.

We all work together to supply art supplies and tools, Sue offers instruction and support and gives the students a say in the art they choose to do. The kids get away from TikTok and Instagram in her classes and learn how to talk to one another and create and listen. She challenges them to imagine, not just to react.

For the social media generation, this can be transformative.

Creativity can’t be dictated or rammed down kids’ throats, not anymore. Sue knows this, she offers them all kinds of art, and they are free to pursue their own ideas and own them.

Sue says she couldn’t do this without the donations she is receiving, and the people who donate are thrilled to do it. She is again teaching me to adapt the idea of the Army Of Good to meet the challenges we all face.

I never tired of seeing these kids at work in her art studios.

Sue is all about empowerment and teaches her students that they are all artists if they want to be and are all creative given a chance. Her students are excited about what they are making and proud of themselves for making it. Once the Creative Spark is lit, it burns on and on.

Sue is utterly committed to her students. She stays late every day as long as a single student wants to come into her classroom and create something. Scores of them do. One student spent days making a quilt for her mother as a Christmas present. The parents say working with Sue has transformed her.

Sue is turning straw into gold – school students line up daily to make clothes, jewelry, totem poles,  paintings, quilts, toys for the poor, wind chimes, blankets, and pottery for their families. Rather than asking people for money, Sue asks for supplies.

She has eight cubicles of art supplies open for the kids to choose from. They use brushes, markers, used silverware, and fabrics.

She has triggered a wondrous flow of generosity and all kinds of supplies.

This week, she’s launching a button program inspired by the more than 1,000 buttons she has received as gifts from the member of the Army Of Good. “I can’t wait to see what they do with it,” she says.

 

Above is a photo of material donations Maria and I are bringing to Sue’s magical art gallery this Thursday. The boxes include a sewing machine, fabric, art supplies, discarded jewelry, and metal objects. She usually hands the things to the students and says, “go.” They take it from there. Sometimes, those boxes fill up our dining room. She finds a way to use everything she gets.

Cissy from Steventown, New York, brought sewing machines and boxes of other donations to the farm. People love to help in this way. I’m learning that Sue never says no to a gift. She has almost a dozen sewing machines now, all of them contributed by good people who care.

People often contact me to ask if they should send one thing or another to Sue. I always say I need to ask, and I do ask. And Sue always says yes, “just send it to me,” she says, “I’ll make it work.” And she does.

Walking through Sue’s art kingdom in the school basement is like walking through an art fairyland for the young. Busy and happy students. They can choose their own art form, and thanks to the generosity of people everywhere, they have all kinds of things to work with, from birch twigs to jewelry to metal objects in every type of cloth and fabric and paint and brushes.

Sue grasped the meaning of a dog like Zinnia from the beginning, and it’s not unusual to see Zinnia cuddling and napping under the sewing machine table.

 

I can’t wait to see the excellent button experiment this Thursday.

If you have any old stuff (I understand now that Sue always says yes), feel free to contribute to the excellent art experiment at Bishop Gibbons; the address is Sue Silverstein, 2600 Albany Street, Schenectady, N.Y., 12304.

Maria has taken it upon herself – upon Sue’s frantic invitation –  to keep the sewing machines running and to show the students how to work them. We get Sue, and she gets us.

The parents in the school are delighted with the art classes and the art their kids are bringing home, and Sue has awakened the creative spirit in scores of children already.

I saw Sue in action at Bishop Maginn, where we became friends, and she guided so many refugee kids through school and college. She’s doing the same thing at Bishop Gibbons, only this time; she uses art to open up these children.

Sue is an artist herself. Maria and I are looking forward to Thursday. There should be buttons flying around all over the place.